25 July 2022

Species seen today: humpback whale, minke whale, white-beaked dolphin

Sea conditions were good this morning with a bit of swell and light winds which dropped off as the morning progressed. Our morning trips were greeted to excellent sightings of minke whales feeding close to the boat and large flocks of birds also going for the fish. We were lucky enough to find a humpback whale which had a pod of white beaked dolphins playing with it.

First cetacean on our afternoon trip was a humpback whale. We saw it surfacing twice. We waited it to come from its dive for awhile and then decided to go to the area where we spotted 3 minke whales. Later we heard the humpback was indeed not easy to observe since it was performing 13 minutes long-distance dives (!) and surfacing for only 2 breaths. We enjoyed seeing, in total, at least 7 minke whales, of which 2 individuals dived under us and surfaced just next to our boat couple of times! One of the individuals was particulary relaxed and curious and even rolled on its back just next to our boat, so we saw its belly side under the surface. The visibility was great, barely any swell and smooth sea. While waiting for minkes to surface from their dives, we were also enjoying the presence of marine birds: puffins, guillemots and razorbills with their chicks, sheerwaters and fulmars gliding above sea surface, skuas and tiny, but equally impressive, storm petrels.